At the outset of a drilling operation, drillers typically establish a drill plan that includes a steering objective location (or target location) and a drilling path to the steering objective location. Once drilling commences, the bottom-hole assembly (BHA) may be directed or “steered” from a vertical drilling path in any number of directions, to follow the proposed drill plan. For example, to recover an underground hydrocarbon deposit, a drill plan might include a vertical bore to the side of a reservoir containing a deposit, then a directional or horizontal bore that penetrates the deposit. The operator may then follow the plan by steering the BHA through the vertical and horizontal aspects in accordance with the plan.
In slide drilling implementations, such directional drilling requires accurate orientation of a bent housing of the down hole motor. The bent housing has a predetermined angle of bend. The high side of this bend is referred to as the toolface of the BHA. In such slide drilling implementations, rotating the drill string changes the orientation of the bent housing and the BHA, and thus the toolface. To effectively steer the assembly, the operator must first determine the current toolface orientation. Thereafter, if the drilling direction needs adjustment, the operator must rotate the drill string or alter other surface drilling parameters to change the toolface orientation.
In contrast to bent housing steerable motors, rotary steerable systems (“RSS”) permit directional drilling to be conducted while the drill string is rotating. As the drill string rotates, frictional forces are reduced and more bit weight is typically available for drilling, which may support faster drilling rates than conventional bent housing drilling motors. In RSS implementations, the operator must make sure that the correct toolface is being maintained by the RSS. This may be achieved by sending instructions to the RSS while it is downhole.
Well operators rely upon experience and conventional best practices to create processes for carrying out tasks, such as drilling, in an efficient manner. However, more efficient, reliable, and intuitive methods for identifying efficient rig processes are needed.